Bay Riffin

Well if I was an opposition coach i would be saying its game over already. get his opponent to run him into the ground, provide an extra man downfield and he will be slowly starved up forward. we have to get him back to full fitness then play him. Unfortuntely a bottom side cannot carry blokes.

If there was a stat for juggling marks, Martin would lead the league. Does it every game. I watched him in the Brisbane game, He was 40 metres from goal, nudged his opponent under the ball beautifully, stretched out his arms for a standard mark, then juggled it, brought it to ground, chased it well, but ended up losing posession. He is a tease, an almost forward who frustrates because he has great attributes. Still reckon he was our only 2nd ruckman, so not sure why we let him go.

i know what you mean, we seem to be found out a bit by the nimble Nahas, Milne, Eddie Betts types. Not sure Nicholson is that good defensively. Really though Watts, Garland and Frawley have plenty of pace but don't seem to use it with much impact. look at Rodan, he times his runs to impact a stoppage or set play. we still have a lot to learn with that.

Just wondering where this guy is at? I see he didn't play on the weekend, Is he still recovering from last years injury ? Would be interested what the football departments view on this guy, mianly because the one game I saw him play for Casey was terrific.

bit like asking a losing tennis player to chase harder. does a team like Hawthorn actually run more KMs than us, or run to the right spots more often? I'm not sure if our lack of running off the ball is the real issue. Go watch Mitchell at the Hawks, he does his fair share of 'walking', but puts the gas on when its needed.

I'm in. I hate these pr1cks with a passion. They started this crap in 2007 because we finished on 5 wins, no extra pick then watched two months later Carlton pick up Kreuzer and Judd. I will put on the army uniform, load up and do what has to be done to get us over the line dee-luded.

He won 1 game last year, and whilst I am happy to let him own his own team and give him some time, he will have to start getting some wins on the board this year. one thing I would like to see is now we start playing some competitive matches, that our players don't start getting injured and dropping like flies. Also specifically I wil be looking to see how he develops Tapscott, Strauss, Blease, Pederson, Spencer, Nicholson and even Gawn for this year. Barring injury they all have the ability to make it as consistently good players at AFL Level. We can hope Viney, Hogan and Toumpas become Elite players but we need a core group of players to step up and do a role.

DemonsHQ: Jack Viney to Hogan cool. lets hope this isn't another false dawn. Got a feeling we might win today !!

Yeah really good comment. We need to be more like the swans and not give up on players so early. he definitely needs a bit moere time before we can make a real decision. He needs to find his feet and play in a competitive side to show off his other talents. Would like to see him break the lines a bit more and show a bit more composure which should come in time. He is still young. Surely one of these higher draft picks with pace and kicking ability can come good !!

Buddy and Judd were Melbourne Supporters, and both have postponed contract talks. Someone start a rumour suggesting the two are linked, and it should appear tomorrow in the Herald Sun as a headline. actually this might be enough.

I just could not stand another season of this joke of an investigation, going into courts, taking focus away from trying to get off the bottom of the ladder. This has dragged on long enough. it just baffles me due to some media coverage we have to spend countless hours, money etc defending ourselves.

oh it can happen. We beat one established side last year. just one. remember where we are at. Port will be thinking the very same thing about us, and I am not pencilling this as a win for us. They have a superior midfield to us at this present time.

Geez thats a long rehab. from memory he did his knee prior to Christmas, so about 13 months ago. Being off till round 8 would make it almost a year and a half recovery.

adnmittedly just when Casey is on TV and his 2 games for the Dees, but his skills look very average, and genral reading of the play is not an asset of his either. I will be staggered if he makes it as a key forward. Just Staggered I reckon his only chance is as a switch hitting 2nd ruck/sometimes forward. this will be his 4th season, so you would expect its now or never.

I will be amazed if Fitzpatrick makes it. Neeld doesn't seem to want to hang onto blokes who aren't natural footballers. I remember when drafted that his junior highlights package was the only one I'd seen without any highlights. This year is surely his very last chance, given Cook just got the chop after two years.

Yes I think for membership he is telling people who go to training he is itching for round 1, but surely he must be months away.

Lets not kid ourselves here. Scully has done more than Watts so far regardless of what money he is getting. he is infinitely harder at the ball and is good at the clearances. something which watts is a novice at. Both are different players but Scully is the more natural footballer. watts has greater disposal though.

I watched him play and remember him playing left half back and when I saw him he was very good. Didn't have the classic build of a footballer but he could really read it and looked confident. Given he was often coming back from injury it was a good sign. But ultimately he couldn't overcome his injuries. Definitely a good footballer though.

Watched the open mile with Tony last night. They covered quite a few topics. His love for John Coleman as a player even had mike sheahan questioning if he was exaggerating. Tony spoke of the norm smith interview. Said it was tense but also like the footy show now, we're well aware of the ratings. Norm ignored large sums of money from rival tv and radio stations to do that interview as he was employed by that network . A man of principal. Tony didn't subscribe to the norm smith curse but was a big fees fan. Really insightful guy who commented on today's broadcast, how wonderful the tv footage is now, rated Tim lane, mcavaney and commeti as best commentators today. Given the broadcasts infinite supply of camera shots, angles and the huge coverage now he then suggested there may be one negative. He then quoted John Kennedy and said we have lost our sense of wonderment. Could have listened to him for hours. A sad loss.

How many AFL entry players weighing 70 kg make it? Seems to light for mine if the weight is correct.

It feels like strike 2 going to the draft again, the same sort of excitement when we had Scully and Trengove to kick start a new era for the 2010 season. We are quite lucky in that Neeld has brought in 4 key forwards in the meantime and yet we had two top midfield picks fall to us with big wraps on them. Without an unusual quirk in the Scully compo and father son we may have just secured our big men but had try and work with an existing average midfield. I really feel we are lucky to have at least good potential in quite a few areas for the dees.

Where do you get this information from? i remember him two years in a row mentioned by coaches as fronting up to pre-season training in extremely good condition and improving his engine quite a bit. I never heard of negatives off field, and training reports were consistently positive about him. Maybe some are not good enough in the end.

Totally agree with this. I would seriously question if we can develop anyone if we can't develop these types of players to at least play a role well.

thanks goodness. we may go down in flames for tanking but signing these two will balance it back in our favour. Geez.

To me I just don't get it. People can justify the gysberts decision because he played 1 game and got 9 possessions. The kid had something to work with. Is blease all of a sudden better because he wasn't playing at Casey but was getting the same sort of low possession counts? We just threw out our one player who can play second ruck in Martin ( who does it now ? Pederson ? Give me a break. Fitzpatrick? Spare me). We gave up gysberts for a bloke who played one decent year of afl and is now mid twenties. Sure we had to do something but I'm afraid I don't share the excitement in this thread. Time will tell but I know in 2012 we had the slowest weakest midfield in the afl. We have done little to rectify that unless they think viney and pick 4 are the new saviours. Sure we needed another key forward but our midfield and rucks just got weakened.